By Chris O'Brien
February 18 2005

Arsenal perhaps made a mockery of the term ‘domestic’ football as they walked to an emphatic 5-1 victory over Crystal Palace at Highbury. Not one English, or even British, player was named in their 16-man squad.

Gary Neville has taken a swipe at Premiership rivals Arsenal as they fielded a team of foreign stars t dispatch of Crystal Palace on Monday evening. Arsene Wenger’s match-day squad had not a drop of British blood and supporters of the beautiful game up and down the country are outraged.

Neville, who never misses an opportunity to emphasise his pride of being a Red Devil, has proclaimed that MUFC will never go down the Arsenal route. He is confident that United will follow a long-standing tradition and always invest in local talent rather than bombarding the Football League with foreign imports.

Neville was part of a sensational United youth team full of Lancastrians who took the Premiership by storm. Paul Scholes, the Neville brothers, Nicky Butt and Wesley Brown are all local lads who have worn the red jersey in recent years, with the cream of young English talent emerging at Old Trafford sure to challenge for first-team football in the near future.

The tough-talking right-back said: “There will always be local lads in the Manchester United team while Alex Ferguson is manager. The fans demand it. It’s tradition like that which makes Manchester United so popular across the whole country.”